Should I drop out of college due to scandal vis-à-vis immodesty? I'm concerned that as a man I am becoming a source of scandal to others by going to a college where most of the female students dress quite immodestly. In addition to this, it is a Catholic university and I take philosophy classes that are of a religious nature. I don't want to give people the impression that this (putting yourself in a free proximate occasion of sin) is ok. If you don't understand my concern then consider this: would it be ok for an asexual man to work as a lifeguard?- obviously not because he would be a source of scandal to everyone who saw him. I don't see any real difference between these two situations, and I would rather be on the safe side since "active scandal is a mortal sin."
Should I drop out of college due to scandal vis-à-vis immodesty?
- Thread starter xqr768
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I hate to say this, but your questions have all the earmarks of scrupulosity. To worry about giving scandal to others by your entirely innocent actions is being scrupulous.
You cannot help what other people do, and I don't think anyone is going to draw any conclusions about you, one way or the other, by your merely attending a university where some of the women dress immodestly. It has nothing to do with you. You're not giving scandal to anyone. If the immodesty is a problem for you, try to cultivate a certain custody of the eyes, but don't be scrupulous about that either. And if you are asexual --- it's not clear from what you say --- then all of this business around you shouldn't bother you. I have to think that asexuality can be a great gift, it removes a lot of the temptations that one would otherwise have. (I'm not asexual, so it's kind of hard for me to shift gears to think in that fashion, I'm just surmising.)
Please find a good, faithful priest and tell him precisely what you have said here. I'm sure he would tell you the same thing.
You cannot help what other people do, and I don't think anyone is going to draw any conclusions about you, one way or the other, by your merely attending a university where some of the women dress immodestly. It has nothing to do with you. You're not giving scandal to anyone. If the immodesty is a problem for you, try to cultivate a certain custody of the eyes, but don't be scrupulous about that either. And if you are asexual --- it's not clear from what you say --- then all of this business around you shouldn't bother you. I have to think that asexuality can be a great gift, it removes a lot of the temptations that one would otherwise have. (I'm not asexual, so it's kind of hard for me to shift gears to think in that fashion, I'm just surmising.)
Please find a good, faithful priest and tell him precisely what you have said here. I'm sure he would tell you the same thing.
But what is the difference? Why is the asexual man working as a lifeguard the mortal sin of scandal, but my situation isn't? And my actions aren't entirely innocent. If I had had my priorities straight when I started I never would have gone to such a place and I don't think any young man should.
Who said that an asexual man working as a lifeguard is "the mortal sin of scandal"? I certainly didn't. Exactly what kind of scandal is being given, and what makes it different for an asexual man working as a lifeguard?
Do you understand what "scandal" is? It is causing other people to sin, or living in such a way that other people get the impression that sin is okay. You don't appear to be doing either here. Indeed, much scrupulosity is fueled by worrying about one's innocent actions vis-à-vis others, who, in the end, have free agency and free will. Sin begins in the will.
If you need your education, and I'm assuming you do, you indeed "have your priorities straight". Nobody expects you to deprive yourself of a good college education because of what other people on campus do.
Please see a priest about this, and tell him everything you've told us here.
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